Being born in the late 1940's, routine circumcision was rarely done to newborn boys.  A good many of the younger boys were born at home and thus were not circumcised.  Although I was born in a hospital, my parents neglected to have me circumcised as they did my older three brothers, two of whom were born at home.

  I was in my early teens when I began feeling inferior to the circumcised boys in gym class.  I began thinking then about having a circumcision.  As time went by, this idea began to become even more on my mind.  It seemed to me that my foreskin was a foreign member on my body that didn't belong there.  I was embarrassed about the idea of someone finding out that I wanted to be circumcised.

  As the years went by, this notion never left my mind.  The feelings really surfaced about a year before I got up the courage to have it done.  It was then that an uncle of mine had to have a circumcision because of a medical condition.  He was hospitalized overnight when he was circumcised.  I felt then that if he, in his 70's could bear to be circumcised, why couldn't I. The next summer I got up the courage to consult a urologist in a city about 50 miles from my home.  I could have had it done at a hospital closer to home, but didn't want anyone I knew to know what I was having done.

  I telephoned the doctor I had chosen for an appointment.  His receptionist told me that the doctor didn't do circumcisions in the office but that he did them on an outpatient basis at a nearby hospital.  I made the appointment with them.  When the doctor came in to see me, he was very understanding about what I was asking him to do.  I retracted my foreskin and showed me about how much of the foreskin he would leave.  He set up the surgery for 2 days later when he already had a scheduled surgery.  He would perform my circumcision immediately after he completed the first surgery he had scheduled.

  On the second day, I arrived at the hospital.  I checked in.  I was brought to a changing room where I was told to disrobe and put on a hospital gown.  I was placed in a room on a hospital gurney.  Shortly a nurse came by and wheeled me to the operating room where the surgery was to take place.  My doctor, his assistant, and a nurse monitoring my vital signs were the only ones present during my circumcision.

  The doctor prepared my penis by shaving the hair growing on the shaft and by applying betadine to disinfect it.  He then injected my penis with a needle to block the pain.  About 5 minutes later, the surgery began.  It lasted less than 20 minutes.  I do remember feeling sensations of the electric hemostats that were used to stop the bleeding.  I didn't, however, feel the inner and outer foreskin which remained being stitched back together, although I was told that was what was taking place at the time.  After the sutures were in place, my penis was bandaged.

  I was released from the hospital in about 1 hour.  I was given a prescription for pain killers, but I really didn't need them.  The only discomforts that I felt was the night time erections that happened and the tingles that would happen when the stitches would catch in my clothes after I stopped bandaging my penis.  I returned to the doctor about 2 days after the operation and again about  a week after the operation.

  After the stitches dissolved and the healing had taken place, I was very pleased with the results of my circumcision.   This is one thing that I have not regretted for one minute.

  My penis now has a much better appearance, and is much easier to keep clean. I only wish that I had gotten up the courage to have it done much earlier in my life.  When I use a public urinal, I am not ashamed for the person who may be standing next to me urinating see that my penis has been circumcised.

  This was the best decision I have ever made in my life.

Darrell, USA